HWI 467

Hollywood What If Chapter 467

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Jacob Sterling. I'm excited to meet you, Kazir, the best director of the century. I've seen all of your movies, and they are masterpieces. They have a strong selling power that is indescribable. As if you, the director, can see the future of Hollywood and know how to catch the attention of people."

Jacob stated his opinion, showing no shyness in his expression.

Many people respected Kazir because of his achievements and looked up to him.

'But this Jacob is different. I can see that he doesn't respect me, he sees me as a director who can make box-office hits. Other than that, he just sees me as a person.'

Kazir thought to himself. Honestly, he preferred these kinds of impressions instead of being fangirled too much. Sometimes, he felt like people around him saw him as a god who could perform miracles. That was not true at all.

He knew that he could fail. He had experienced it so many times.

Kazir stared at the script after Jacob introduced himself. Based on the title, Kazir already knew Paramount's intention.

"Just to be clear, I represent Hasbro more than Paramount. I'm their contact whenever Hasbro cooperates with a production studio."

"I heard that Hasbro and Paramount Pictures are trying to make a G.I. Joe movie. Is that true?"

"It's confidential information. I can't answer you," Jacob replied.

"I understand."

Kazir had an idea about the truth.

Hasbro owned a lot of toys, board games, and tabletop games. They were trying to penetrate Hollywood to popularize their products internationally. Their toys were famous in the West, but it was different in other countries.

They had cooperated with 20th Century Fox, New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers, and other B-list studios to create movies for their products.

Movies based on toys and tabletops were released, such as Clue, Power Rangers, and Dungeons & Dragons... They didn't perform well at the box office.

Everything changed when Hasbro worked with Paramount Pictures to create Transformers. It was an ambitious goal that had a strong chance to fail.

God knows how much CGI and special effects would be needed just to create realistic scenes of cars turning into giant robots.

For the project, Paramount Pictures hired a well-known director, Michael Bay.

Michael Bay was the director of Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Bad Boys II. He had a strong box office appeal... His movies also had high production costs because Michael Bay preferred using special effects. Oh, he also loved explosions. In his opinion, the bigger the explosion, the better.

Both Hasbro and Paramount Pictures understood Michael Bay's strengths and decided to put their trust in him. And yeah, Michael Bay created one of the most famous movie franchises in the world, Transformers. The success of Transformers increased the popularity of Transformer toys, and Hasbro was making lots of money.

After that huge success, Hasbro decided to entrust another franchise to Paramount, which was G.I. Joe. The first movie was amazing, while the sequels were shit.

Anyway, that was the original story that Kazir knew.

But it was different now. Because Kazir showed up.

Michael Bay was still a respected director. But Kazir was the best director when it came to making blockbusters.

Of course, Paramount Pictures and Hasbro wanted Kazir to direct Transformers rather than Michael Bay.

'If I'm not wrong, I'm their first choice, while Michael Bay is the second choice.'

Kazir slightly smiled. He was a fan of Michael Bay's movies because Kazir loved watching action movies. And now, he was above Michael Bay.

He scratched his nose. He felt nice.

"You are our first choice," Jacob said.

'As expected,' Kazir nodded.

"We know how hard it will be to produce Transformers, the money, the technology to create special effects, and the right director... We believe that if there's a director who can bring life to our Transformers, it should be you, Director Grey."

At the end of the day, everyone knew that for a movie to be successful, it needed a talented director. Most of the time, the status of the director equated to the success of a movie. There was a reason why studios hired veteran directors.

Directors who had box office hits had the experience, they also knew how to work under pressure, and their vision to create a movie was compact. Being a director was not simple. It was a tough career.

It was understandable why Paramount Pictures and Hasbro wanted to hire Kazir. His ability was proven and tested.

Money was not a problem. They could offer a 25+25 contract to Kazir with no problem.

In the first place, Hasbro wanted to make a successful Transformers movie to sell more of their toys.

"Your flattery sounds nice to hear. But I have to apologize. You probably heard that I'm currently filming Pirates of the Caribbean. I have no time for Transformers. I recommend you contact Michael Bay instead."

"We are also interested in Michael Bay, but we wanted to talk to you first. Transformers is still in its initial stage, and the movie is planned to be released around 2007 or 2008. We still have two years. We know that you finish your projects fast, so it's probably not a problem for you to start Transformers at the end of 2005 or early in 2006. Director, all we want is for you to take your time to think about our offer. We promise that we will provide you with the best contract."

"... I'll think about it."

That was the best that Kazir could promise.

The meeting ended, and Jacob Sterling left.

"Transformers, huh..."

Kazir had a lot of things to do. His schedule was packed, and he didn't know if he would have time to dabble his hands in other projects.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was set to be released next year, 2006.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was set to be released in 2007.

The Dark Knight was set to be released in 2008.

For the next three years, Kazir's schedule was packed. Furthermore, he was interested in filming Ninja Assassin and an original horror movie once 2008 passed.

++++

[I remember when I was in elementary school, when Transformers was released, many vendors in our area started selling cheap copies of Transformers, around PHP 5 for each. I loved assembling those toys when I was young. Now, it's hard to find those kinds of toys even online. Man, I miss those cheap lead-filled reassembled toys, lol.]

[I was interested in Transformers, but looking through Kazir's schedule, I found it inhumane if I added Transformers to his filmography. I decided to let go of this franchise.]